


Sunset-Tinted Sunglasses

by ujihun



Category: ONEUS (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bar/Pub, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Not K-Pop Idols, How Do I Tag, M/M, One Shot, Why Did I Write This?, and seoho is a confident gay, bar manager!youngjo, bar singer!seoho, bartender!geonhak, early childhood major!Geonhak, geonhak discovers he's a panicked gay, implied yeo hwanwoong but i didn't even mention his name, seodo, theyre out of character lol sorry, word vomit, youngjo is a little shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:48:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24196966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ujihun/pseuds/ujihun
Summary: Geonhak has never been romantically interested in anyone. He's been busy, working a routine nightly as a bartender, while also juggling his studies as an early childhood major. But then he sees those sunglasses tinted like a sunset, then at the owner of the glasses, and any composure that he has just unravels and flies out the window.
Relationships: Kim Geonhak | Leedo & Kim Youngjo | Ravn, Kim Geonhak | Leedo & Lee Seoho, Kim Geonhak | Leedo/Lee Seoho
Comments: 2
Kudos: 61





	Sunset-Tinted Sunglasses

**Author's Note:**

> i really don't know how to write  
> i lost track of what i was doing like not even halfway through this and so this just becomes a mess somewhere  
> again  
> but i just have like a million ideas and ?? i can't romance at all but i just had this random idea about sunset-tinted sunglasses that somehow branched out into a bar oneus au lol (and idk how bars work)

When Geonhak sees Seoho for the first time, a pair of sunglasses rimmed with gold are sitting upon the edge of his nose.

The lenses are sunset-tinted, an ombre of rose into apricot, with a pair of sharp, sleek eyes sitting behind them. His dark hair, the color of ink, is styled down the middle, but has gone unruly and tousled from his performance. Geonhak eyes the rough denim jacket that the singer is wearing, and subconsciously gulps when the jacket slips teasingly off one shoulder. These colored lights that shine down from the ceiling are Seoho's backup dancers, accompanying him with every move he makes, matching as his choreography varies from powerful to elegant. He's singing some upbeat pop song that Geonhak doesn't know nor understand because it's in English. He doesn't know the foreign words that slip off of Seoho's tongue, but the dark-haired man does such a good job translating through the emotions in his voice that it doesn't matter to Geonhak whether he understands the lyrics or not.

A damp towel is scrunched up in Geonhak's hand, pressed against the bar's counter with the intention of cleaning a spilled drink that's now dried and sticky, but the bartender is unmoving, frozen, his task now forgotten as he stares. He stares, quite dumbly, when Seoho belts out an impressive high note with ease. People are screaming and cheering, most of them incredibly tipsy and wild, hands flying up in the air or in circles or onto each other. Somehow, Geonhak notices none of it. He only sees and hears the artist on the stage, his sweet vocals piercing through the crowd, and the name _Lee Seoho_ echoes nonstop in the back of his skull.

_It's a pretty name_ , he thinks.

_A pretty name for a pretty man._

Seoho's eyes suddenly meet his, as if he had heard Geonhak's thoughts, and Geonhak's brain short-circuits. There's this brief, blinding smile, the brightest Geonhak has ever seen, and he sees the half-moons underneath the sunset glasses before Seoho turns away. His chest feels prickly, tingly; the kind of tingly that McDonald's Sprite at three in the morning feels like. Not his best analogy, but it's not like he can think straight right now (quite literally).

Geonhak's face flushes and he tries to blame the tingling on the adrenaline of the bar. But he knows it's futile to try to fool himself now. He watches like he's in a trance as Seoho does some effortless adlibs, strikes a finishing pose, and ends the song with an adorable, exhilarated _Yeah!_

The bar manager, who's been hovering over Geonhak's shoulder for a while now, decides it's time to make his presence known and clears his throat directly into Geonhak's ear. The blonde man practically jumps out of his skin, gasping and whipping around too fast that he nearly topples over his own feet. Youngjo stands over him, in the same uniform (of course, as they work at the same place), consisting of a black button-up, black vest, black slacks, and black dress shoes. It makes Youngjo’s appearance relatively threatening as it pairs with equally black hair that hangs over his eyes, but Youngjo’s name tag with two exclamation points and a little cat drawn on it says otherwise about the man. Geonhak looks up at his coworker, whose hands are placed proudly on his hips. When their eyes lock, Youngjo flashes this annoying, shit-eating grin.

"Hak," is all Youngjo says, though the mischief in his voice gives Geonhak an idea of what Youngjo is implying. _You totally have a crush,_ is what it looks like.

Geonhak doesn’t appreciate the sentiment at all. He shoots Youngjo the dirtiest look that he can muster, but the raven-haired man remains unbothered, instead giving a wink that makes a vein pop in Geonhak’s forehead. He feels the back of his neck and his ears grow hot in embarrassment, tinting themselves a dark shade of red. It really doesn't help him against Youngjo, only justifying that Geonhak is truly crushing on the man with sunset glasses. He hates the expression on his friend's face, the wicked look of twinkling eyes and a mouth that's ready to spout mocking teases over how much clearly whipped Geonhak is.

And so he acts without really thinking in order to stop any words from tumbling out of Youngjo’s mouth. The towel that’s still in his hands plops onto the table and Geonhak is wiping his gross, moist hand against the older man's cheek. Remnants of soiled water and jungle juice alcohol slop at Youngjo's _oh, so beautiful_ face. Youngjo recoils with a horrified expression, and the next thing Geonhak knows, the older man is throwing himself forward.

Youngjo throws his hands out unskillfully, palms open like he's pushing someone, and Geonhak is about to taunt him when the unskillful palms actually succeed in slapping Geonhak’s eyes. He squawks in surprise, blinded briefly, and Youngjo takes the chance to wrap his arms around Geonhak's waist as if he knows what he's doing. But it's a stupid move, the blonde man muses. It leaves Youngjo's entire back unguarded, and his neck as well, fitting perfectly underneath Geonhak's dominant arm. A triumphant cackle escapes the younger man's mouth when he gets Youngjo into the all-too-easy headlock. Youngjo's body twists weirdly as he stubbornly refuses to let go of Geonhak's torso, his cheek pressed uncomfortably against Geonhak's hip, and he ends up being forced to flail his arms aimlessly due to the easy power difference between a gym freak and a, well, non-gym freak. It goes on like that, Geonhak manhandling Youngjo like he’s a wrestler on the WWE Smackdown, or at least until the dark-haired man is screaming his surrender not even a second later.

"Okay, okay!" Youngjo hollers uncharacteristically, his fingers slapping and clawing desperately at Geonhak's forearm. "I give!"

Youngjo staggers a good distance away when Geonhak releases him. The blonde can't help but snicker as he relishes in his victory. Youngjo's fingers trace over his throat dramatically and he feigns a pained expression, his eyebrows furrowed and his lips pouted. It's his trademark sad cat face meant for guilt-tripping, but it's far too recycled that Geonhak's grown immune to it now. Geonhak is about to roll his eyes over his friend's acting but freezes when someone giggles from the other side of the counter. He had forgotten for a moment that he's still on duty as a bartender and he goes to regain his composure, only to lose it again when he faces the giggling person.

"Y'all are weird," the owner of the giggle says and Geonhak chokes on nothing when he sees the sunset glasses gleaming under the bar lights.

Youngjo abandons his sad cat act immediately, his eyes flashing with yet another round of mischief, and straightens up to shuffle to Geonhak's side again. He throws an arm around the bartender's shoulder casually and ignores the second dirty look from Geonhak.

“Weird?” The shit-eating grin returns onto his face as he speaks. "Yeah, Geonhak _-ah_ here gets that a lot."

Seoho perks up a bit, his eyes turning up brightly. "Hm. Geonhak, eh?"

As stiff as a board, Geonhak just nods stupidly as if to say _yeah, that's me, that's my name_. Seoho giggles again and Geonhak finds he's never wanted to run away more in his life. He panics and averts his eyes, looking all too stiffly as he gazes elsewhere. He takes notice of a new performer occupying the stage now, a rapper that contrasts in style from the ~~extremely handsome~~ singer across the counter. She's rapping something about a stuttering heartbeat as she points her finger out towards the rowdy crowd. Somewhere along the way, her finger passes over to them and Geonhak hates to admit that his heart is, indeed, stuttering. He can still see the cause of his stuttering out of the corner of his eye and he reluctantly looks back at the bar singer again. Said man is staring him down with a sweet smile plastered on his face.

"Come on, Hak. Don’t be shy.”

That earns Youngjo an elbow to the ribs, but Geonhak still isn’t sure what to say. He wishes Youngjo wasn’t right about him being shy, because not only _is_ Geonhak a shy guy in general, now he’s so stupidly enamored in front of Seoho that he doesn't even know how to function.

"What, cat got your tongue, Geonhak- _ssi_?" Seoho pokes fun at Geonhak as well, pulling a barstool over to sit on.

Geonhak is still trying his best to collect his composure - or whatever composure he still has - while he scowls bitterly at the nuisance of a friend hanging off of his shoulder. He has to peel Youngjo's weight off of him, who whines, while trying to ignore the heat rising to his face from embarrassment. He finally wrenches away from the clingy man before digging through the mess of words in his head.

"Youngjo- _hyung_ ," Geonhak finds himself speaking, "is like a cat. So yes. It's his fault I’m shy."

It’s a pathetic attempt at a joke, but the man remembers he’s not funny and internally screams. Whatever the hell he had just said barely resembles a joke, and Geonhak musters up everything in his chest to hold back his internal screaming from becoming external.

_Why did I say that? Oh my God, you dumbass, it doesn’t even make sense._

But, much to Geonhak's surprise, Seoho is laughing as if what Geonhak said is the funniest thing in the world. Youngjo looks surprised too, his eyes wide, especially when Seoho laughs so hard that he has to remove his tinted glasses to wipe away tears.

“Wow, Hak. Someone actually finds you funny."

Before Geonhak can even give Youngjo his millionth offended look, Seoho sets down his glasses and suddenly slaps a cell phone down onto the counter. Geonhak’s eyebrows fly up to his hairline, mixed emotions flooding his head. He looks down at the array of colorful stickers that are plastered all over the phone case and he fights off the urge to say it's cute. So he tears his eyes away and looks at Seoho instead, which, frankly, only makes it worse. But he's confused, uncertain as to what the bar singer's intentions are. The bartender looks up at Seoho, then down at the sticker-covered phone. Then up at the man again, down at the phone again. He’s unaware of his mouth that’s hanging open as he fails to understand Seoho’s action, but he must really look like a nutcase because Seoho looks like he’s about to break into tears again. His cheeks are puffed out as he tries not to laugh, and Geonhak just blankly stares at him. The singer pinches his fingers together as he breathes out in an exaggerated manner, calming himself down, before clearing his throat dramatically.

"Let's trade numbers," Seoho announces.

Seoho's words come out with so much ease, so bravely, that something tumbles in Geonhak's stomach. It’s the last thing he thought the singer would say, considering how much Geonhak has humiliated himself in the span of five minutes. But he clumsily juggles out his phone from his back pocket, unlocks it, and hesitantly passes it over. Seoho snatches it, surprising Geonhak for the millionth time. He stares as Seoho taps out his information into Geonhak’s outdated brick of a phone. His body threatens to shut down again at the idea of somehow getting the number of _Lee Seoho_ , hopefully-close-in-age years old, random ass dude he just watched perform at his job. _How did his awkward ass manage this? With how many times he’s embarrassed himself? When he’s this shy and stiff? When he's never even liked anyone before?_

“Are you just gonna stand there?” The singer looks up at him, drawing him out of his thoughts.

“Huh?” He responds dumbly.

“My phone. Put your number in.”

“Oh.”

He picks Seoho’s phone off the table slowly and carefully. There’s a small keychain dangling from it that he hadn’t noticed earlier, a small cartoon of a squirrel sealed behind plastic. The squirrel has an uncanny resemblance to the owner of the phone. He looks at the squirrel keychain, glances up at Seoho, and smirks in amusement before he starts typing in his own contact information. He and Seoho trade phones back and Geonhak pockets it real fast. He feels his stomach flip-flop when Seoho smiles down at Geonhak’s contact and Geonhak, not so subtly, stares.

“Cute,” Seoho chirps.

Geonhak chokes on nothing again and Seoho calmly returns the sunset-tinted sunglasses onto the bridge of his nose with an entertained expression on his face. Then there's an exchange of goodbye's between him and the singer, but Geonhak can't remember it because Youngjo starts prodding at him right away.

“Geez, _hyung_ , you’re really fucking annoying tonight,” Geonhak hisses, scrunching his nose up like he tends to do too often, as he starts scrubbing at the forgotten stain on the table from earlier.

Youngjo merely smiles, much too innocently.

“Thank you. I try.”

But after a while, Youngjo gives Geonhak this apologetic look for humiliating the younger man before he’s forced to return to his job as bar manager. There’s a squabble across the bar where two drunkards waver on the edge of a fight, and while Geonhak wipes uselessly at the stickiness on the counter, he watches as Youngjo has to shove himself in between the two patrons. The shorter of the patrons, who almost resembles a middle school boy, promptly hurls on Youngjo's shoes, and Geonhak watches as his friend miserably catches the now-unconscious, tiny, incredibly wasted man. The black-haired man drags out said tiny, wasted man to call for a tab, and then it ends. Then the night carries on per usual, the whole _'I'm apparently a stupid, panicked gay'_ ordeal forgotten.

Geonhak's apartment door slams shut with too much force when he gets home. He stands still, leaning backwards with the back of his head against the door, before he digs out his phone from his back pocket and swipes to unlock it. The phone opens up to the last opened app, his contacts, and everything rushes back to him. He finally looks down at the new profile in his phone and at the corny selfie that Seoho had somehow taken without him noticing. As he looks at the picture, Geonhak comes to the conclusion that Seoho is a dork. He analyzes Seoho's unique V-sign, consisting of his pinky and ring finger, at the overdone wink, and at the tongue sticking out. He’s added his own squirrel emoji next to his contact name, as well as a winky face that Geonhak admits is really corny. But it’s also endearing as he slips his phone back into his pocket.

Seoho’s a dork, alright.

A dork indeed but a cute, talented, attractive weirdo nonetheless.

And maybe Geonhak is willing to give this romance thing a go, just for the man with sunset-tinted sunglasses.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry i didnt know how to end it-  
> did any of this make sense  
> i'm aro-ace, and even if i wasn't, i seriously don't know how to romance  
> although i'd like to think i'm similar to geonhak bc i'm (1) also shy, (2) majoring in something similar to early childhood, (3) july birthdays, his birthday is 4 days before mine!!, (4) we both have younger brothers by three years, and (5) ok that's really it lol  
> oh also, there's probably mistakes throughout this, i'm sorry  
> .  
> shameless self-promos bc i drew seoho in like, january, and then i just posted a drawing of sehyoon of a.c.e last night lol,  
> [my art instagram](https://www.instagram.com/akihisae/)  
> [my kpop twitter](https://www.twitter.com/ujihun_/)


End file.
